The National Chairman of the National Unity Party, NUP,
Perry Opara, has attributed the shortcomings in the current administration to
weakness of the Senate in carrying out its oversight functions.
Opara said the Senate has become a toothless bull dog,
adding that they were weak from day one of this administration.
He said this while assessing the state of the economy and
making verdict on the performance of the Buhari-led government as it clocks two
years in office.
He told Leadership, “I think part of the reasons why this
government has not done very well as it should do was that the Senate was weak
from day one.
“The Senate become a toothless bull dog, struggling to make
peace with the executive and it affected the economy and the administration.
“For the government that was a mistake. If the senate had
started work from day one by performing their oversight functions, knowing full
well that they are the third arm of government, we would not have this
scenario.
“The only thing that makes a democracy thick is the
legislature. In a dictatorship there is executive and judiciary.
“So the only thing that makes democracy is one arm of the
government called the legislature and this legislative arm has oversight
functions.
“There should be independence of the arms of government.
They have power to even oversight Mr President.
“They have powers to reject bills coming from Mr President
like the way is it done in America. You saw what happened to Obama care
recently.
“The Republican Party controls the Senate and the House yet,
the Obamacare reform process could not succeed, that is the beauty of
democracy.
“Our Senate is waking up from their political slumber but
that is not how it is done. Nobody should shake the legislature.
“It is the symbol of democracy. The legislature is the only
arm of government that protects democracy and every constituency in Nigeria
that is why they are many.”
